A little bit of everything, a whole lot of nothing.

Tag: Magic: The Gathering

One of the archetypes of EDH decks that I have yet to build is a “Stax” deck. The archetype gets its name from a card named Smokestack, which essentially gets counters on it each turn and forces players to sacrifice permanents equal to the number of counters on it. There are a bunch of cards in all colors, but primarily colorless artifacts that have these sorts of effects on them. The goal of a stax deck is to slow down your opponents, but to have a gameplan in place that makes the negative effects less of a burden on yourself. Originally I brewed up a Grand Arbiter Augustin IV stax deck, but it was never actually built and then the new Commander 2018 product released and I found a new and better leader for this style. Enter Estrid, the Masked:

At first glance, Estrid doesn’t seem like a stax commander. Unlike GAAIV who inherently causes your spells to cost less and your opponents’ spells to cost more, Estrid is a Planeswalker that has a variety of effects. The reason she can be used effectively in a stax strategy is due to her +2 and -1 loyalty abilities. Her -1 allows her to place aura enchantments on permanents, which then can be untapped once per turn using her +2. With stax effects, often times you are limited to untapping one thing, or sometimes nothing at all, but with her +2 you can untap anything you control that is enchanted. That isn’t to say that we will be using her -1 to do this, it’s just an option we can use if needed. Instead, we are going to focus on Enchant Land cards and The Chain Veil to give us some combo ability. First let’s look at our main combo:

Our goal here is to get to a point where we can produce 5 mana via enchanted lands. A Wild Growth will allow a single land to tap for two mana. A Market Festival makes the enchanted land tap for three mana. Once we can produce that 5 mana, have The Chain Veil and Estrid on the board, we can gain infinite mana that can be used in a variety of ways. You’ll have to use something like Relic Ward or Estrid’s -1 to enchant The Chain Veil, then you’ll be able to untap the lands with Estrid’s +2 ability, then pay 4 to use The Chain Veil to use her ability again. The 5th mana each time you do this will add up to infinite mana. We can do even more shenanigans using cards like Arbor Elf, Kiora’s Follower, Ley Weaver or Voyaging Satyr to further untap lands or permanents. Those creatures can also be enchanted with Estrid’s -1 to use their effects further. Any of these combinations of effects can produce infinite mana with which we can use to end the game. Here’s how:

Using our Commander + TCV combo above, we can get an infinite number of Squirrel Tokens to close out a game. We’ll want something like Concordant Crossroads on the battlefield first so they will have hast though. The same goes for Luminarch Ascension and Heliod, God of the Sun — we can pump out an infinite number of tokens given our infinite mana pool. Helix Pinnacle doesn’t require us to do anything except get 100 counters on it, which is easy to do with infinite mana, but it will have to survive until our next upkeep, so you should probably try to give it a Relic Ward or Totem Armor with Estrid’s -1. Lastly, if we have the highest lift total at the table, we can burn our opponents out with a high costed Hurricane. These are the ways that we want to win, but we also want to slow the rest of the table down until we can find these pieces in our deck (which can also be done with our infinite mana combo — once Estrid is a 8 loyalty, simply -7 her to get free enchantments onto the board. We can mill ourselves until we find the appropriate pieces all on the same turn). As such, here are the stax pieces we’ll be including:

Creatures, Planeswalkers and Artifacts working hand in hand to slow your opponents down and ultimately secure you the win. Bonus with the Planeswalkers, they also benefit from The Chain Veil and it’s activated ability works for all Planeswalkers in play, so you can easily draw your deck with Teferi and get to their ultimate abilities quickly. There is another interesting interaction with these artifact pieces: I’ve included Inspiring Statuary, which allows you to use artifacts to tap for mana, and if those pieces are tapped during your upkeep the negative effects won’t hurt you. You can then get them untapped again by the time it’s your opponent’s turn with Paradox Engine or Unwinding Clock. I’ve also added a Seedborn Muse to help with this. We’ll be wanting to do a lot of tapping and untapping shenanigans, but in the end our opponents will be miffed and we’ll combo off to win the game! Probably not as consistent as Chain Veil Teferi, but I think this deck will be a lot of fun. You can see the full decklist here.

Around tax return season this year, I decided to treat myself by purchasing a rather expensive decklist. My playgroup’s meta had been shifting towards more competitive options, and as such I looked at a tier list to see what commanders were best suited for the highest tiers. Having a Daxos, the Returned deck and being familiar with Enchantments matter themes, Zur the Enchanter appealed most to me. I set about building a list, but I was hesitant to build something that was too abusive. I didn’t want to be the guy with the most powerful deck at the table who made it impossible to win games for anyone else. So when I made my initial build that you can see in the above link, I decided to go for a sort of voltron build for Zur with some additional sub themes. From what I can tell through playing with the deck for six months is that having what is considered a tier 1 general means that it will win pretty consistently but won’t be considered competitive unless you build it in a particular way. A cursory Google search for competitive EDH (cEDH) decklists will show that the most consistent and reliable wins come from using a combination of cards that I didn’t have in my initial build. Well, I had some but I was coming at it from a different angle. Having played at GP Vegas against some real competition (people bringing their A game) I decided that my lone tier 1 general deserved to be played at his best. I’m not interested in having a long list of uber competitive builds, but having one that is a real show-stopper appeals to me. As such, I’ve decided to make some upgrades. I have a real competitive tier 1 decklist now, and I would like to share these upgrades with you all at this time.

New Combos:

The main win conditions for the deck are as follows:

Rest in Peace + Helm of Disobedience = mill opponent’s library into Exile causing them to lose on next draw step.

Necropotence or Ad Nauseum + Angel’s Grace or Phyrexian Unlife + Sickening Dreams = draw your library then discard to do X damage to all players but you won’t die.

The other win condition that was in my old build that has survived the changeover is the combination of Steel of the Godhead (which makes Zur unblockable and gives him lifelink) and Empyrial Armor (giving +1/+1 for cards in hand) and Phyresis (giving Zur infect). There’s a nice interaction with Necropotence and lifelink that essentially gives you a ton of extra card draw as well.

Additional Ramp/Mana Fixing:

To make the deck’s engine hum, I also had to take a look at the mana base and ramp. I included plenty of artifact ramp already, but there were a couple of pieces that were missing — Mana Crypt and Lotus Petal. Mana Crypt is great when it comes to generalized ramp, but Lotus Petal is good for Zur in particular, because we want to cast him as quickly as possible. The petal can be the difference between casting Zur on turn 2 or 3 as opposed to turn 4. I’ve also added the needed fetch lands to compliment the shock lands already included in my initial build.

Additional Utility:

The final upgrades are spread about with some additional tutors in Vampiric and Mystical (I also added a Demonic Tutor) that will help us to find pieces needed for our wincons, or to tutor Doomsday which will accelerate things. I’ve also added some counterspells that have a competitive edge. Cards like Mental Misstep and Dispel feel like shitty versions of counterspells, but in a competitive meta, shutting down someone’s combo by countering their Sol Ring will be frustrating for them and excellent for you. Toxic Deluge is a arguably an upgrade from Damnation, only because it costs a mana less and life totals are a great resource. Finally we come to Stasis. I feel like it’s something that could help slow down a game if you need more time to get your combo pieces together, but some might say that it’s downside (keeping your shit tapped when you sacrifice it) makes it less worthwhile. I’m going to test it out and see what happens.

So there you have it. Checkout the full decklist here. I have ordered the majority of these cards at this point and will have the deck up and running again soon. A couple of the more expensive pieces will have to wait, but it will eventually be completed. I can’t wait to try it out and see how much it can crush the competition!

I mentioned in my last post that there were two of the Commander 2018 decks that I’m interested in, and the other I plan to pick up is the Bant Enchantments set, “Adaptive Enchantment.” This is starting to feel like the sleeper deck in the series, and is easily the most versatile. Each of the four commanders in the deck are easy build arounds, though you probably will want to use cards other than what’s included here. Once again I’m not building the Planeswalker straight off the bat, but I do feel like she has potential and I’ll have a brew for her soon enough.

When I first gave the deck a once-over I was leaning towards building Kestia, but I’m not interested in a heavy aura focus because I’ve brewed two different Voltron decks and it’s such a similar idea. I am however including plenty of enchantment creatures in my build so I’ll still get card draw off of her given the chance. Estrid was disappointing to me at first, but I’ve found that I really want to find some busted combos for her, and I’m already well aware of her interactions with The Chain Veil. Arixmethes looks like a great ramp/beater (krakens and leviathans and octopi, oh my!) commander as well, which I might brew at a later time. Based on my first impressions, I’ve found that the commander I wanted to build the most is Tuvasa the Sunlit:

Tuvasa is a 1/1 for 3 CMC (bant). Not too impressive, but a cheap casting cost means an early start to the gameplan. She gets +1/+1 for each enchantment we control, which means she can be huge by the mid game. Bonus, when we cast our first enchantment each turn, we get to draw a card. So, Tuvasa is a Argothian Enchantress (draw a card for playing an enchantment) and also a Yavimaya Enchantress (+1/+1 for each enchantment you control). Two very nice effects that have synergy with the rest of the deck, and can stack when using nearly all of the other enchantresses that have been printed, and we have most of them!

Enchantresses:

As you can see, in our colors we have quite a few options when it comes to enchantresses. We even have an enchantment creature (triggers Kestia) and a global enchantment (which triggers the enchantresses) version of the effect. Lastly, the Herald of the Pantheon reduces the cost of our enchantment spells (including enchantment creatures) and gets us some life in the process. As such, the majority of the creatures in the deck are enchantment based.

Enchantment Creatures:

Kestia herself is an enchantment creature along with having the bestow ability allowing you to make another creature even bigger. She’ll always draw you a card when she attacks, but if our other enchantment creatures attack as well, you’ll draw a pile. Many of the best enchantment creatures are Gods, so I’ve included most of those that fall in our colors, and each come with their own set of boons. Ephara will draw us more cards, while Karametra ramps us and Kruphix keeps our mana pool from emptying. Gods are all indestructible and have solid bodies for their costs, but can’t attack until you have a particular devotion to their colors. This shouldn’t be an issue with the number of enchantments we plan to put out onto the board!

Enchantments:

Most of our global enchantment package is aimed at ramping us and removal for our opponents. Some light pillowfort effects like Propaganda, Ghostly Prison and Frozen Aether will slow down their attacks. Sterling Grove protects our investment, but can also be sacrificed to tutor up an enchantment, and Estrid’s Invocation can be busted if you copy the right enchantment with it. Our real aim though is to use our Enchant Land cards to create a big ass mana pool, casting enchantments to draw more cards and cast more spells more efficiently and rapidly than our opponents. This brings me to our win conditions:

Win Conditions:

With enough enchantments on the battlefield, Starfield of Nyx can win the game. Not only is it turn by turn recursion for enchantments, but it also turns all of our non-auras into creatures and help with a go-wide win. Alternatively, with Heliod and enough mana, we can pump out a ton of enchantment creature tokens, beefing up Tuvasa and use Thassa’s ability to make her unblockable taking out a player with commander damage. Do this enough times and you’ll win. Nylea’s Colossus can expedite this by giving Tuvasa double strike. You can also steal someone else’s big beater or use Corrupted Conscience on Tuvasa to give her infect and start eliminating targets. Lastly, using our ramp package above in conjuction with Krosan Restorer or Ley Weaver to tap and untap lands for a large enough amount can end a game with a high X-cost Hurricane. I’ve tried to provide options and flexibility but of course this is still just on paper at this point as the decks aren’t quite out yet.

Tutors/Recursion:

Helping things along are a suite of tutors and recursion to allow us to search for a creature or enchantment that will help us out of a bind, or pull permanents back out of the graveyard to use again. I believe this deck will be fairly competitive in casual circles and is still relatively budget. Estrid on the other hand will likely be the only high tier commander from the set, and I look forward to trying to break her. That’s all for this time, but you can see the full decklist here.

The Commander 2018 product launches in just a few days (on August 10th) and though I’ve already talked about the spoilers and how much I wasn’t all that impressed, upon further review I have found some decks to build out of the precons anyway. My roommate and I were discussing the possibility of going in on the complete set of four decks together and then splitting that in half. While we were both initially most interested in the Lord Windgrace (Jund Lands-Matter) deck we ended up agreeing on how to split up the four pack — I would take Bant Enchantments and Esper Top-Deck while he takes the Izzet Artifacts and Jund Lands Matter decks. As such, I have started to thoroughly look at the deck lists and since I’ve had a little time off of work I was able to brew up something out of each of the precons.

Today, we’re looking at the “Subjective Reality” deck lead by Aminatou. I really don’t care for this card, and though the backup commanders are intriguing, I already have a couple of Esper decks and don’t think I want another. I have a Scarab God Zombie deck and though adding white to it is intriguing, I don’t think Varina is more powerful than Scarab God. I brewed a Sphinx tribal deck in Azorius a while back and gave up on ever building it, adding black to that mix could be fun, but there really aren’t enough good Sphinxes to make that deck. In any case, Aminatou and Yennet both probably have decks that could be built around them but I’m not going to bother at this point. Like the rest of the precon decks, there are the three main generals that fall under whatever color combination, and then another legendary creature that is missing one of the colors, and in this case, that is the exact creature I want to build my deck around. In all honesty the precon isn’t adding much to the deck either, but my chosen commander has spiked so it makes more sense to buy the precon than just the single — at least I’ll get some lands and staples along the way, and I can see a case for using some of the pieces elsewhere. So before we get to the new brew, let’s look at our commander:

Ninjas are one of the under-represented tribes in Magic, like Pirates/Dinos before them. With Yuriko, there is finally a proper Legendary Ninja with which to lead a Ninja deck, however there aren’t that many Ninjas in the game. I have literally included all of the black and blue Ninjas that exist, and it’s not enough to really focus on the tribal theme. There is a solution to this though, and we’ll discuss shortly. What makes this commander exciting to me is that it uses the old Ninja-exclusive keyword “Ninjutsu” but adds a clause that it can also be done from the command zone! So each time an unblocked attacker gets to one of my opponents, for a blue and a black I can return that unblocked creature to my hand and then put Yuriko down tapped and attacking. Her additional ability triggers when Ninjas do damage to a player, which means she counts towards this as well. After the damage step, I’ll reveal the top card of my library and put it into my hand (so it’s card draw each time a Ninja does damage), then EACH opponent loses life equal to the revealed card’s CMC. That’s a very effective means of burning out the table, and means we want as many Ninjas in our deck as possible, along with plenty of evasion so that we can get in and draw cards while draining our opponent’s life. First, let’s look at the actual Ninja’s I’ve included:

Ninjas:

Generally speaking, the Ninjas we have here are pretty good. Most are a reasonable CMC while having ninjutsu. Some will help me to remove other creatures, some will cause opponents to discard, and one in particular can become a copy of something else while remaining a ninja. As you can see though, there are only 10 ninjas here, 11 if you count our commander. That’s not enough for a tribal deck, but our commander really wants you to do damage with Ninjas, so I’ve included three cards to help with this. Conspiracy, Xenograft and Arcane Adaption will make all of your creatures Ninjas, and that’s a lesson learned from my Reaper King deck that would not function without them, as most of the scarecrows out there were garbage. There aren’t ways to tutor enchantments in dimir colors outside of the normal expensive black tutors, so we’re hoping for one in our opening hand or while drawing cards through the game. Not only do we want all of our creatures to be Ninjas, but we also need to get some sort of evasion so we can do the combat damage to opponents and bring more Ninjas in with ninjutsu, or just so we can trigger Yuriko’s ability, so let’s look at how we can do just that.

Evasion:

I’ve added some relevant non-Ninja creatures to the pool, some of which have baked-in evasion such as being unblockable. These will still count as Ninjas if you have one of the aforementioned enchantments out on the board, or alternatively you can use ninjutsu to swap out the unblocked attacker for a real Ninja if you don’t have the enchantment available. I’ve also included Keeper of Keys and Tetsuko to give more unblockability to your creatures. Open into Wonder can help you get through with multiple creatures and will draw you some cards in the process, and if all else fails there’s good ol’ Rogue’s Passage. Because we don’t have that many Ninjas (and we really want the real ones to use their Ninjutsu abilities) we’ll also want a decent recursion package. Here’s that:

Recursion:

Oversold Cemetary, Palace Siege (naming Khans) and Phyrexian Reclamation are going to be our best ways to recur creatures over an over again. The first two will just give you a creature from graveyard to hand, while the latter costs a couple mana and life to recur but can be done multiple times in a turn. If you have the mana, Entreat the Dead (particularly for it’s miracle cost) will net you several creatures at once. Ditto that for Patriarch’s Bidding, though that one will be more viable with one of our creature type changing enchantments on the board. The Eldest Reborn fits into multiple themes in this deck, but will force some sacrificing from you opponents and can also get you back a creature or allow you to steal one of theirs. The other two cards, Stitch Together and Mortuary Mire don’t do as much but will work in a pinch. The latter also helps with top deck manipulation, as you can put a high CMC creature on top of your library to set up Yuriko’s trigger for maximum damage. Let’s look at the other ways we can manipulate the top of our library to our advantage:

Top Deck Manipulation:

Sensei’s Divining Top is the penultimate card for doing these sorts of shenanigans. It allows you to brainstorm for a colorless mana at any point in time. Otherwise, there are poor man versions in Crystal Ball and Seer’s Lantern. In spell form, we can Brainstorm, Ponder, Portent and Dream Cache. Viscera Seer can let us Scry for sacrificing a creature, and in the right circumstances we’ll want to do so (Having an Oversold Cemetary that will bring the creature back, or having Grave Pact out will give you some benefits from your own sacrifice). There are also a couple of scry lands included that can help in a pinch. We want to mess with our top deck to give Yuriko triggers that much more effect, but also so we can draw into the cards we want. That brings me to our subtheme (besides top deck manipulation).

Theft/Force Sac:

Dimir is exceptional at a few things. One is theft. Another is Mill. I’m not going to make another mill build since I did that with Tetsuko, so instead I’m going with forced sacrifice since we have a good amount of recursion and can use these tools again and again. So above we have Evil Twin, which isn’t direct theft, but allows you to copy a troublesome creature and then destroy it with its ability. Hostage Taker, Kheru Mind-Eater and Gonti exile opponent’s cards and let you cast them. And then there’s the big three creatures that we want in a sacrifice/recursion environment: Fleshbag Marauder, Merciless Executioner, and Shriekmaw. They can force your opponents to sacrifice a creature, while you’ll just sacrifice it. Shriekmaw is usually just used for its evoke cost and then it’s sacrificed anyway. Bonus, if you have Grave Pact on the board, each time one of your creatures die opponents have to sacrifice another one, so in many cases these are two for one creatures! Keep the board wiped and you won’t need evasion to get your Yuriko triggers!

Other Notables:

Lastly, let’s look at some of the final cards of the deck, ones that don’t really fit into the other categories. I included Rona because she can do some interesting top deck stuff. You can pay 4 and tap her to exile the top card of your library and you may cast cards that she’s exiled. This means you can manipulate the top of your deck and then do so to get basically another hand of cards you can play at will. Also, when she ETBs she can exile an historic card from your graveyard for you to cast again. My favorite target here would be the lone saga: The Eldest Reborn. Also included are cards like Duskmantle Seer, Sire of Stagnation, Mulldrifter and Coastal Piracy for more card draw. Sower of Discord is an awesome demon that will cause an extra opponent to take damage off of damaging another, and Skull Storm is a finisher in this deck, particularly if you get the storm count up there.

That’s all for this brew, but I’m actually rather excited about getting to it! You can see the full decklist here. Which commander did you choose to build around in this deck?

I wrote about a few of the spoilers for Commander 2018 earlier this week, and now the decks have been spoiled fully. I wasn’t seeing much to be excited about then, and I’m still feeling pretty indifferent about the new set at this point. There are a couple of new cycles that seem okay, and some individual cards that I wouldn’t mind for other decks or as build arounds, but for the most part there isn’t a single one of these precons that I can’t wait to get my hands on, and that makes me sad. However, that doesn’t mean that I won’t buy the product, because each deck will come with staples and a handful of cards that I’ll want, but it’s also probably wiser to just buy singles. Some of the reprints are handy, but there isn’t anything that’s an expensive card being reprinted that makes me want to jump on that particular deck. Overall it’s a lackluster product and I’m surprised given Wizards’ track record this year. Dominaria was amazing. Battlebond was spectacular. Ever Core Set 2019 had some chase cards in it. Commander 2018 is the worst thing to release this year. But don’t let my doom and gloom bother you, perhaps there’s something there for people that I’m not seeing, and if you’re a new player in the format these are still a great way to get a bunch of cards on the cheap so you can play with your friends. First up, let’s look at the new cycles.

New Cycles:

The first new cycle is a storm cycle. The Storm keyword hasn’t been used much over the years, but it usually revolves around how many spells you cast in a turn, then you copy the storm spell for however many spells cast before it. Rather than being that keyword, this cycle functions a little bit differently. Each of these storm cards counts how many times you’ve cast your commander that game, and then you get copies of the spell equal to that. It’s the same sort of mechanic but made to work via EDH. Of these my favorites are Skull Storm and Genesis storm, the former being a finisher in the right deck, the latter being some nice tutoring.

Lieutenant isn’t a new thing, we had these in past commander products, but there are one for each color at this point, and that’s a nice feature. Each of them will give you a boon as long as you control this creature and your commander. I’d say the blue and green versions are probably the best but each could find a place in many decks. Next up, let’s look at some of the individual cards that I think are worth finding homes for in your decks.

White:

The Heavenly Blademaster is a nice creature. A 3/6 flying double striker, it gives an anthem to your other creatures equal to the number of auras and equipment attached to it. That’s powerful in a deck that’s dealing with auras and equipment, but probably not good in a voltron deck because you won’t have other creatures to benefit from the anthem. Magus of the Balance is a nice land destruction tool that isn’t as harsh as Armageddon. Lastly, seeing some of the miracles reprinted is nice, and Banishing Stroke is a good one, putting a permanent on the bottom of its owner’s library for one mana if you happen to be able to cast it for its miracle cost.

Blue:

Another miracle, a reprint of Saheeli’s Artistry (which is a really good card from Kaladesh) and a new card sharing its commander’s name: Animatou’s Augury. This one exiles 8 cards from the top of your library and ramps you by one land, then for each non land type you can cast a spell for free. It’s expensive and can whiff, but when it goes off that’s a good card.

Black:

Yet another miracle reprint, and three cards I really like. Sower of Discord is Saskia’s ability on a different creature. It’s also a demon, so it fits well in my Kaalia deck. Moonlight Bargain is some nice card draw in black, but a little on the expensive side. Night Incarnate is a nice board clear and is cheaper if you evoke it. Great for Meren and other reanimators.

Red:

Blasphemous Act is a commander staple for red. Enchanter’s Bane looks to be a new one. It’s an Enchantment that deals damage to another enchantment’s controller equal to that enchatment’s cmc. So if someone drops a propaganda on you, drop this on their propaganda, and good times will ensue.

Green:

Green feels like it got the most love this time around. Nothing here is absolutely amazing, but there are some good useful cards. Graveyard hate, commander tax reduction, recursion, enchantments matter and some big creatures. Looks good.

Multi-Colored:

Some interesting new cards and some reprints in multi-color. I really like the new Legendary Ninja, and it’s an interesting thought to build Esper Zombies. Many white zombies were introduced back in Amonkhet so it’s probably doable but probably not that effective. I’ll stick with Dimir Zombies myself. Some interesting cards here but still nothing spectacular.

Colorless and Lands:

More reprints in this category. We’re getting the slow fetch lands, a new scry land, and some others. Duplicant is a staple to a degree, and unwinding clock goes well in decks looking to combo with artifacts. Otherwise nothing amazing.

And that’s that. If I end up picking up some of these and finding some new brews I’ll be sure to share but as of now I’m not overly impressed. A shame really, as this is supposed to be the best time of year for us EDH players. Anyway, you can see the full decklists here.